Published for the first time in English, Panorama is a superb rediscovered novel of the Holocaust by a neglected modernist master—one of a handful of death camp survivors to fictionalize his experiences in German. Together with The Journey, it prompts a major reassessment of Czech author H.G. Adler, previously known for the founding nonfiction Holocaust study Theresienstadt 1941–1945. The novel is a portrait of a place and people soon to be destroyed, as seen through the eyes of young Josef Kramer in ten distinct scenes. It begins in pastoral Word War I–era Bohemia, where the boy passively witnesses the "wonders of the world" in a panorama display. It follows him to a German boarding school, full of creeping xenophobia and prejudice, until he is sent to a labor camp and then to one of the most infamous death camps, which he randomly survives, choosing exile abroad after the war. Josef's philosophical journey mirrors the author's own: from a stoic acceptance of events to a realization that "the viewer is also the participant" and that action must be taken in life, if only to make sure the dead are not forgotten.

"[The author] produced a quantity and a diversity of writings about the Holocaust that seem to have been equaled by no other survivor.... The Journey and Panorama are very different works, each with its own distinctive style, but both are modernist masterpieces worthy of comparison to those of Kafka or Musil."—The New Yorker

"An artful and brutal description ... that nearly guarantees Panorama a place in the canon of Holocaust literature. The novel, now translated into English for the first time, is as remarkable for its literary experimentation as for its historical testimony ... a haunting narrative."—SFChronicle

"Every so often, a book shocks you into realizing just how much effort and sheer luck was required to get it into your hands.... Panorama should have been the brilliant debut of a major German writer.... It's hard to fathom why we had to wait so long. Adler, who died in London in 1988, was a gifted novelist as well as an important scholar. Under any circumstances, let alone such harsh ones, his accomplishments would be remarkable."—NYTBR